Cosmetic cleaning agents, such as hair shampoos, are based on conventional anionic, amphoteric, zwitterionic, non-ionic and/or cationic surfactants. Owing to their outstanding cleaning and foaming ability, anionic surfactants, optionally mixed with small amounts of co-surfactants, are predominantly used.
Such a commercial shampoo cleans the hair and removes sebaceous residues and/or residues of styling agents and other impurities from the surface of the hair and from the scalp. However, the cleaning process also removes lipids and proteins from the hair and scalp, which can damage the hair structure and cause the scalp to dry out, particularly with frequent cleaning.
To eliminate these disadvantages, many cosmetic cleaning agents additionally include care substances such as for example vegetable oils, silicones or special polymers.
In many cases, however, care substances based on oils, fats and/or waxes have a disadvantageous effect on the foam properties and storage stability of the cleaning agents, as a result of which in the past either additional (polymeric) stabilizing agents and/or larger amounts of surfactants were used.
Document WO 97/35548A1 for example discloses conditioning hair shampoos that include a mixture of anionic and amphoteric surfactants, a silicone emulsion and a cationic polymer. The shampoos include either larger amounts of surfactants or additional stabilizing agents (carbopols).
For environmental reasons the manufacturers of cosmetic cleaning agents have tried in recent years to increase the efficiency of the agents without using larger amounts of surfactants or additional stabilizing agents (more optimum use of resources).
It is therefore desirable to provide caring cleaning agents having good foam properties.
The use of larger amounts of surfactants and/or additional stabilizing agents should be avoided as far as possible, without reducing the effectiveness of the agents.
The cleaning agents should be suitable in particular for the gentle cleaning and care of the hair, and after application they should impart an improved combability and improved visual and tactile properties to the hair.
Furthermore, other desirable features and characteristics of the present invention will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description of the invention and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and this background of the invention.